Evaluation for Question #8586

On the one hand, government officials should take the leading role in handling environmental problems since they possess resources and power to implement stricter policies on a large scale.

It is evident that they can introduce regulations taxing on industrial activities that release harmful emissions to the environment. Furthermore, due to how immerse environmental issues can be, the consequences if humans pollute the environment may be detrimental to public health and economy. This is exemplified that climate change which is a pressing issue globally causes severe natural disasters leading to the damage of infrastructure, houses and businesses and resulting in the significant economic loss. As a result, individuals can not deal with such problems and the authorities must be tasked with conserving the ecosystem.

However, the residents should be responsible to protect the environment as the government's initiatives would be undermined if íts citizens do not take responsibility and polluting the environment. Water contamination of the To Lich river is a vivid example for this argument, whereas the authorities introduce a law to prohibit the discharging of illegal waste water, some people continue to throw trash into the water. Therefore, the To Lich river is still polluted. As a consequence, raising people’s awareness can contribute to fewer waste and a greener community, proving that the power of society can address environmental problems and preserving the environment is also achievable through collective effort of the whole community. Another reason is that the government's budget is limited and there are more other alarming concerns including transport, alleviating poverty healthcare or combating climate change. Consequently, people should be obligated to safeguard nature to reduce the strain on government’s resources.

In conclusion, while it is believed that preserving nature is the obligation of the state, individuals do not take responsibility for it since they do too little. In my opinion, I argue that both the public institutions and all citizens should take care of nature because protecting the environment not only requires policies from the state but also requires changes in people's habits.